What are the advantages of omnichannel customer service?

Posted by Janvi Anand

Over the last decade, people's shopping habits and company practices have dramatically evolved. In recent years, brick-and-mortar retail has gone through an apocalypse. Due to the decline in street shopping, many well-known firms have closed all or part of their offline locations.

Several reasons appear to have contributed to the decline of a number of prominent stores. When compared to firms like Apple, the in-store experience was not always up to pace. Furthermore, they were unable to compete with Amazon's online offerings and eCommerce retailers. Finally, the great majority of stores forced to go down did not take an omnichannel strategy for omnichannel customer service and experience. Fluid and tailored customer experiences are critical in today's environment of impatient and busy consumers.

What Is the Definition of an Omnichannel Customer Experience?

An omnichannel experience is a seamless customer journey that spans various consumer touchpoints. It allows clients to begin their experience on one channel and continue on another while receiving constant assistance.

This strategy analyses the customer's whole journey, from initial contact to post-purchase assistance. It also simplifies the purchasing process by providing prospects with a uniform experience across all channels.

If you purchase an Apple device online and want assistance, you may call and speak with a professional. If your problem necessitates you taking your product to a store, the customer care agent writes a service ticket detailing your problem. Apple makes sure the ticket is available to in-store personnel, so you don't have to explain yourself again when you visit one of their stores.

Omnichannel vs. Multichannel Customer Experience

Consider this scenario: you had fantastic phone help from an Apple representative, but when you came into the shop, they had no idea why you were there. This is a famous example of a multichannel customer experience, in which a corporation interacts with customers through many communication channels, each of which is handled individually and follows a different strategy.

As a result, client data is often stored in silos, making it difficult to provide a comprehensive experience to consumers.

Each channel in an omnichannel strategy is linked and coordinated with the others to provide a seamless experience. For example, a consumer may use your chat support to ask a pre-sales inquiry, purchase your product through your website, and seek help through your ticketing system without encountering any issues or having to start over.

What Are the Advantages of an Omnichannel Strategy?

Engaging in your firm's customer interaction plan keeps your consumers happy and helps you expand your business. Eighty-three percent of B2B executives believe that an omnichannel approach is a better way to win new business than conventional face-to-face techniques.

A strong omnichannel strategy may also boost customer retention and income. According to one survey, one out of every five clients will quit a firm if their sales channels are not integrated.

The following are some of the most significant reasons that a great omnichannel user experience helps both you and your customers:

1.Provides customers with a consistent experience.

Customers enjoy a consistent experience no matter where they are or which device they use when you have an omnichannel strategy in place. This consistency aids in the development of relationships with users and provides a positive customer service experience overall. Customers demand consistency across departments, according to 76% of customers.

2. Improves consumer loyalty and retention.

Consumers that are happy become loyal customers who become brand ambassadors for your company and tell their friends about their excellent experiences. Customers will spend 57 per cent more with you if they feel linked to your business.

3. Increases consumer loyalty

Customers may connect with your firm in a variety of ways using an omnichannel strategy. In a survey of 2,000 customers, 85 per cent responded that a combination of channels is their favourite channel.

4. Provides a holistic perspective of your consumers' experience.

An omnichannel approach entails tracking consumer activity across many channels, giving you a more comprehensive picture of their habits. For example, using a service like Hootsuite to measure social networks delivers precise data that may help you better understand your consumers' activities and wants.

5.Makes your brand stand out

Stand apart from the competition by positioning your firm based on the experience you deliver. Providing a positive client experience across all touchpoints will help you leap ahead of the competition - less than 20% of firms polled in 2021 claim to provide seamless customer interactions.

Human-technology collaboration

When a corporation is able to build a human connection rather than an emotionless digital experience, client connections take on a whole new significance. Including meaningful human contacts in the buyer's journey can assist a firm in forming long-term connections with its consumers and clients. Furthermore, integrating pleasant human contacts with an omnichannel customer experience model can result in a fluid and satisfying level of service.

If a busy entrepreneur has to apply for a home renovation loan, she may go to a bank's website and start a live chat conversation with an agent. She fills out the loan application that the live chat worker emailed her and submits it online the next lunchtime. The bank clerk, on the other hand, notes that a piece of information is missing from the application. An SMS message is sent to the consumer to notify them. The SMS message includes a link that may be used to contact an agent who is familiar with the loan, application, and missing information.

The agent can then either assist the client in filling up the missing information on the application or request that the customer resubmits it. Despite the number of devices involved and the varying numbers of workers required, this example of applying for a loan involves a fluid client experience. The issue was handled swiftly and without the need for the client to repeat herself because we had access to pertinent customer information.

With a multichannel strategy, the consumer would have gotten an SMS alerting her to an application mistake, but she would have dialled a generic customer care number and had to describe the matter to the contact centre representative or bank clerk again. When the consumer called the bank, she was likely to be annoyed by many automated messages and menus. A smooth and speedy omnichannel experience, along with pleasant human contacts, may make the process joyful rather than frustrating.

How to Create Outstanding Omnichannel Customer Experiences

Implementing an omnichannel customer experience strategy is a massive task that needs much planning and preparation. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating an ideal omnichannel experience, there are a few basic actions you can take to improve your chances of success.

1. Obtain feedback from customers and create personas

Understanding your customers' preferences can help you choose the right channels and develop a winning approach. Discover how your users want to engage with your organisation by determining their favourite digital and physical channels. If you receive more emails and phone calls than chat or social media communications, your analytics will reveal this.

Interviewing or surveying consumers is an excellent approach to collecting data across all touchpoints since you can learn firsthand where your customers anticipate you to be. According to one survey, older generations regard websites as vital communication channels, but Generation Z and millennials consider texting to be critical. Create personas or profiles for each consumer category after you have the data. Each one should contain details about the goals they're attempting to attain, their preferred channels telephone answering services, and any present pain spots.

2. Set up a cross-functional CX team by identifying stakeholders.

An omnichannel approach necessitates buy-in from all levels of your business. For this sort of strategy to function, everyone from management to leadership must be on board, therefore securing leadership buy-in and identifying stakeholders is a critical first stage in the transition planning process.

Establish a cross-functional team to assess prospects across your channels after you have identified your stakeholders. This group will need to develop a transformation path while also acting as subject matter experts in their respective professions. For example, Including your product, marketing, customer experience, customer support, and operations teams, is normal practice.

3. To identify touchpoints, do a customer journey mapping exercise.

A journey mapping exercise is the greatest approach to map out client behaviour, including how they travel across channels. A user journey map depicts your customers' interactions with your firm across various touchpoints and media.

To better address your consumers' demands, it's critical to find each of your online and offline touchpoints. A route map can help you figure out where such interactions and transfers, as well as any goals, occur. At each touchpoint, the consumer is aiming to do something.

4. Utilize the appropriate software and tools

You can gather and analyse useful data, target prospects at the correct moment. It also increase conversions with the proper technologies in place. By consolidating your data, you'll be able to share it across numerous channels and instantly record all consumer interactions.

Chatbots and customer communication platforms, such as Salesforce or HubSpot CRM. It's similar to Intercom, and help desk software such as Zendesk are all necessary components of an omnichannel strategy. An example of software created specifically for omnichannel interactions is Freshdesk, which manages customer care across online and physical channels.

5. Make Customer Service More Proactive

In order to create an omnichannel experience, you must anticipate your consumers' demands and provide proactive customer support. You may boost client loyalty and income by taking a proactive strategy. According to Gartner's analysis of thousands of clients, consumers who have positive service experiences are considerably likely to remain clients.

It all comes down to the proper individuals.

An omnichannel customer experience is not appropriate for many businesses. If you're a tiny accounting business, for example, integrating your CRM with your customer support software might not make sense. This does not preclude you from providing an exceptional level of client service and experience.

Customers and clients recall how they felt after interacting with a firm. A voicemail message or a web page that cannot provide what they are looking for will irritate your callers. Many businesses need to take an omnichannel approach to give the greatest possible customer experience, which includes integrating consumer touchpoints. Human warmth, on the other hand, is essential for insignificant encounters. While automation and integration might help a business run more efficiently, when it comes to developing genuine relationships with customers. A pleasant and professional receptionist is frequently the start of a wonderful client experience for many businesses.

Tags: Omnichannel customer service Chat support Help desk